Event: Dante: Il Folle Volo, Vie Smarrite, La Prima Radice
Date: 5 - 30 March 2021
Time: Various
Venue: Società Dante Alighieri & The Splendid, Valletta
As part of the Valletta Cultural Agency, The Strada Stretta Concept is set to collaborate with the Societá Dante Alighieri and the Art & Art History Department within the University of Malta, for an exhibition in honour of the 700th centenary of Dante Aligheri. Dante: Il Folle Volo, Vie Smarrite, La Prima Radice forms part of the Strada Stretta programme under the artistic direction of Giuseppe Schembri Bonaci, and will be open to the public between the 6 - 30 March 2021, at the Societá Dante Alighieri in Old Bakery Street and The Splendid in Strada Stretta, Valletta.
Established artist Anthony Catania, along with new and upcoming artists Matthew Shirfield and Kylie Aquilina will be exhibiting works that address Dante’s Divina Commedia. Each centralising their study around a different Canto, the artists will be expressing their interpretations and relations to the writings of Dante and their artistic endeavours. Focusing on Canto 26 of Dante’s Inferno, Catania’s Il Folle Volo is a series of visual works that explore metaphoric tropes associated with Ulyssean katabasis, the return voyage. These paintings allow for an engagement with Dante’s interpretation of the Homeric hero in a visual analytic reflexivity and intertextual literary dialogue.
Matthew Shirfield, a Fine Arts student in the Art & Art History Department at the University of Malta, is presenting Dante passing through ‘paths lost’ in search of authenticity. He was inspired by the Divina Commedia, wherein Dante embarks on a journey to search for the purity that would counter contemporary decadence and values. These works are proposing a novel original approach to Dante’s epic work, particularly that of inserting the Dante epic into a Maltese visual context.
Moreover, Kylie Aquilina’s La Prima Radice (Il-Għerq Ewlieni) is a series of works narrating the tragic love story of Francesca and Paolo which features in Dante’s Inferno Canto 5. Under the supervision of Prof Giuseppe Schembri Bonaci and through a careful study of this canto and her own private writings, she represents lust and love by searching for their roots in history. The two terms are interpreted by Aquilina as being like a seed which is planted, cultivated, and transformed into fruit, rotting over time. Deterioration and painful love are represented by a video projection and a series of triptychs that engage in constant dialogue with the Commedia and her own subconscious.
With this exhibition, the Strada Stretta Concept is directly participating in the international commemoration of this milestone anniversary. The exhibition will be open for viewing from the 6 - 30 March 2021 at the Societá Dante Alighieri and The Splendid.
Entrance to the exhibition is free.
Kindly book an appointment via email or call on +356 2124 2018. Please note that due to the current situation, all visitors are to wear a mask and maintain social distancing throughout.
More information on the event can be found on The Strada Stretta Concept and the Valletta Cultural Agency pages on Facebook.